Popular Topics

The Magazine

Let us take you on a journey of the world. Each issue of the Gear Patrol Magazine comes packed with adventures, guides and stories exclusive to the magazine. Stunningly designed, printed on high quality stock and ready for your coffee table. Biannual. $39.

The Newsletter

Get GEAR PATROL in your inbox with the DISPATCH, including Today in Gear and all our new stories. Daily, 5pm. Free.

Toyota Beats the Aftermarket to the Punch With a TRD Body Kit

Finding a clean, unmodified, lightly driven Toyota Supra is no easy task. It’s so difficult, in fact, that an untouched, low-mileage example from the ’90s recently went for a staggering six-figure sum. It’s an excepted reality that nearly all Supras get modified in some way, as the car is a hit with – and, therefore, a victim of – the early-00’s tuner culture. For the 2020 Supra, Toyota’s TRD department is beating the aftermarket to the punch with a factory-designed body kit of its own.

As of now, the TRD upgrades are only visual, but Toyota claims the carbon fiber front spoiler, side skirts, diffuser and rear spoiler have a genuine effect onthe aerodynamics. The vertical fins at the front, side and back should, in theory, clean up the airflow around the car, while the lip on the deck lid should add a marginal amount of downforce. The package also comes with lightweight 19-inch alloy wheels and a slab of carbon fiber on either side, which Toyota refers to as a “door garnish.” Whether or not any of this actually does add performance remains to be seen.

In every performance car family, there is a base model and a top-tier version with power and handling upgrades, plus a few visual modifications. Then there’s the middle-ground model, which borrows the looks from the top-of-the-line model but is left without the performance upgrades. Here’s hoping this is just the middle-ground Supra to hold us over while Toyota’s TRD department is busy tinkering with the twin-turbo straight-six – working toward the real upgrades everyone wants.